Order of the Supreme Court in the matter of Sugra Adiwasi & Others Vs Pathranand & Others dated 29/04/2025. The bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the state of Madhya Pradesh as well as the central government through the the Ministries of Tribal Affairs and …
It is an anomaly: the privy purse was abolished 24 years ago, yet, here, in the Dangs, they still exist. The British ruled in the Dangs under the foreign territories regulations. In 1947 it acceeded to India by default. So when the privy was abolished for the former states, the …
In the pre-British era, the Dangis, part of a larger trade circle in forest products, dictated the terms of trade in forest produce. Merchants from the peripheral towns, bought permission to cut timber from the Bhil chiefs. The rate, in 1826, was Rs.2.25 per cart. Payments were often in kind, …
Gandhian leader Chotubhai Nayak had dreamed that they would be the key to the tribals' prosperity, these jangal mandalis, or forest labour cooperatives. They have been a feature of the Dangs since 1948 and operated till 1960, when the Dangs district was a part of Bombay state. They were dissolved …
This forest is schizophrenic...it is a forest with 2 distinct personalities. One part of it is decked up -- like the drawing room of an impoverished lord -- exhibiting all that attracts applause, and funds, from international agencies. The other part is the dark, dingy and miserable home for the …
THE seething controversy over local rights to collect forest produce in national parks and sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh may force a review of wildlife legislation. These local rights were challenged recently in the Supreme Court by Vanya, a Panchmarhi-based conservationist group, following the revoking of a ban order on forest …
THE book is an attempt to theorise the relationships between the many factors responsible for the degradation of forests. Although it does not deal with the latest developments in India in forestry - Joint Forest Management and the new, proposed Forest Act - it nevertheless provides a useful backdrop for …
TO DAHELI and her husband Lalia, a conference of the order of the World Social Summit for Development has little significance. Daheli is a plump, middle-aged tribal peasant woman, belonging to the Mankar subtribe of the Bhils, residing in a village called Attha in the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh. …
THERE is a widely held view that migratory herdsmen, who are allowed to graze their stocks in the forested areas, are the prime cause of degradation. There is a constant clash between the forest department officials and the herdsmen. Bashir Khan Bakerwal is just such a herdsman. I met him …
Four Franciscan Mary Missionery (FMM) nuns who have rebelled against the Church are in the forefront of a struggle for the restoration of tribal ancestral lands illegally occupied, mostly by Christian settlers. "We came here to conscientise the tribals and realised that we needed to be conscientised instead," said sister …
THE public meeting was held on a wintry morning. "When the shops were closed, there was peace in our homes. We want that quietness in our ooru (tribal hamlet)," said Shanti, the tribal woman who addressed the meeting. More than 200 villagers had assembled for the January 2nd dharna before …
THIS book throws light on the framework of administration of Bihar's Santhal Parganas district. It to give a comprehensive picture of development efforts in a tribal area. The study begins with the factors leading to the evolution of development administration in India in general and specifically in the Santhal Parganas. …
There exists a canon of empirical literature on Indian tribes. But there has been no adequate explanation of the present status and the process of change of these societies. This well-written and well-researched book by Bikram Nanda has "tried to clear the ground for the search for a perspective with …
IN AN appeal to save the planet, law students of the Delhi-based Centre for Environmental Law enacted Vasundhra (Earth), at their convocation ceremony. The play, directed by Amitava Dasgupta, was a hit with the audience. A woman in AD 2225 travels back in time to find a tree for her …
UPROOTED 4 times in 3 decades. Thirty thousand villagers of Madhya Pradesh were first displaced during the construction of the Rihand dam (late '50s); later, again, when coal was found in the mid-70s; a third time, to make room for industry; and finally, when the Singrauli mega thermal power station …
Democracy entails statutory safeguards against infringement of the inalienable rights of the people. But in the country today, the state of legislations protecting the people from wanton development is abysmal. Only Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra have some kind of an act regarding resettlement and rehabilitation. In Karnataka, the Act …
What do you give to oustees who have been cleared away in the name of a developmental project? Take land, give land, says the government, without, however, seeming too eager to stick by its own cryptic formula. The Sardar Sarovar Project, for instance, guarantees every displaced adult (defined as a …
"We were thrown out in July 1974, during the rains. They didn't give us houses, or even money to build them. We took shelter under the trees," says Khudyan Singh Moravi, a Baiga tribal from Lonadhar, Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh. Moravi's only fault was that he had been staying within …
...cried the NGOs, oustees, social scientists and mass leaders in unison. Neither the secretive methods of the government nor the general policies laid down in the draft were acceptable to them. "It is a matter of shame that this draft policy is being formulated more for satisfying the conditions laid …
It seemed too good to be true. A recent order of the Karnataka government allowed the 650 tribal families living in a part of the Rajiv Gandhi National Park to collect minor forest produce to build homes within the forest. The order also initiated the process of setting up public …
Members of the Mescalero Apache tribe in New Mexico, us, have successfully warded off an us attempt to turn their land into a radioactive waste dump. In early February, representatives of the tribe voted down a proposal to store several thousand tonnes of spent nuclear fuel rods in the region. …
